A single mum who was forced out of her dream job with West Yorkshire Police because of sexual discrimination has turned to the Court of Appeal in a bid to win back a £165,829 compensation pay-out.

Former police officer Angela Vento, 35, who lived in Eccleshill, Bradford, at the time, was awarded the damages by an Employment Tribunal in June 2000 after they ruled she suffered discrimination - but the award was overturned at an Employment Appeal Tribunal in October 2001.

Then, Mr Justice Wall, who headed the appeal tribunal, said the payout made to Ms Vento to cover her future loss of earnings must be reconsidered.

But yesterday her legal team claimed the appeal tribunal had made an "error of law" and shouldn't have taken away the £165,829.

Christopher Jeans QC told Lord Justice Ward, Lord Justice Mummery and Lord Justice Jonathan Parker - sitting at the Court of Appeal in London - that Ms Vento was the victim of "serious and persistent" sexual discrimination.

The mother-of-three was not retained after her two-year probation period, during which, said the barrister, she showed "extraordinary fortitude" despite her "appalling" treatment.

Mr Jeans claimed it was Ms Vento's "lifelong ambition" to become a police officer, but once her marriage broke down shortly after she began her job, superior officers changed their attitude towards her branding her "dishonest, incompetent and disloyal".

In making the £165,829 award, the original employment tribunal ruled there was a 75 per cent chance Ms Vento would have stayed with the force until the retirement age of 55, but the appeal tribunal later said they had fallen "seriously into error".

"On statistical evidence, only nine per cent of women serve more than 18 years," read Mr Justice Wall's judgement.

"We can see no proper basis upon which the tribunal could have been justified in departing so radically from the figure of nine per cent in order to reach the finding Ms Vento stood a 75 per cent chance of remaining in the police force until retirement."

But today Mr Jeans attacked that finding, saying the appeal tribunal failed to observe the "limits of its own jurisdiction" when considering the case, as they could only consider "issues of law" and could not review the original tribunal's factual findings.

He added the appeal tribunal committed a "fundamental error" by not taking into account evidence heard at the employment tribunal, and said they gave too much weight to statistics submitted on behalf of West Yorkshire Police.

Describing the employment tribunal's reasons for their award as a "model of clarity", Mr Jeans added the appeal tribunal had made a "fundamental error".

The barrister went on to say that Ms Vento was likely to have remained in the force until retirement because of her love of the job, increasing pressures on the police in today's society to retain officers and new "family friendly" policies.

But David Bean QC, for West Yorkshire Police, said the very highest probability of Ms Vento remaining in her job for 18 years was 50 per cent and any other finding was "perverse".

"The award has to be balanced against the fact she had only served two years - two years in which she had time off work for events unrelated to the discrimination."

The employment tribunal had in June 2000 awarded Ms Vento total compensation of £257,844.

She is appealing against the employment appeal tribunal's decision to substantially reduce that payout.

The hearing continues.